| This is my journal for the Solara I guess. 6.08.2001
I noticed that the gas mileage improved significantly after installing the
supercharger. I was getting maybe 18 or so before it was installed. That number
is an average of the MPG that I've received since buying my Solara and is a mix
of highway and city driving, mostly city. Pure highway driving was considerably
higher. The MPG now is at about 21 MPG, but this is only based upon two fill
ups. That is about a 15% increase or so and is surprising given how aggressive
I've been since installing it. I just thought it was noteworthy.
5.27.2001
I added a K&N Filter today. It seems to have made a difference. The old
air filter was a little dirty but not bad. The K and N Filter also seems to have
been constructed better than the OEM or stock filter. It was a little tight
putting it in, but the seal is very good. The seal on the old filter was coming
off and I wonder if dirt was bypassing the filter and ending up in my engine.
The K&N box has claims on the back of it that suggest better than a 50%
increase in flow. One thing that I did notice about it that made me wonder a
little. The surface area on the stock filter is much greater than the K&N.
This makes me think that some dirt will go through the K&N that would not
have gone through the stock filter. It is an oiled filter some of the dirt that
would pass through will probably simply stick to the filter. I don't know. The
engine sounded much better after installing this filter though. I don't think it
was necessary before, but the supercharger requires more air flow and this is
one option. It is also the least expensive of the performance filter options at
about $40. That's about it for now. The wind kicked up and we just had a nice
lightning show, but it seems to have passed. I swear we get more rain than
Seattle. Then again, maybe not.
5.26.2001
It's Saturday. I didn't feel like uploading the pics yet. I only took two
pictures during the installation. We were trying to get it installed in a
reasonable amount of time. It took 6-7 hours including cleanup. I did it with
the help of my friend Scott who is also a well qualified mechanic whose
knowledge and tools were indispensable as far as I was concerned. This was also
a two person job and it really shouldn't be attempted without help. We did the
installation on Thursday night and didn't finish up until about 1AM. I am very
happy with the performance and with the deal we had from Toyotaparts4u.com
for the group buy. The performance, while not exactly awesome, is much better
than without the supercharger and it is a noticeable difference. I had one
problem that will be taken care of by tomorrow. The car is still equipped with
the stock air box and filter. I will probably leave the stock air box for now,
but I am replacing the filter with a K&N Filter tomorrow. Advance Auto Parts
had a fair price for the filter and it was better than most (not all) of the
prices I found on the web and I will be able to pick it up on Sunday. The price
for the filter is $41.99+tax. Not great but not bad either. The K&N is
supposed to flow 50% better than the stock filter so it should help to reduce
the restriction. You can see dyno results from showing the differences between
the stock filter and no filter at Supercamry.com.
There are some other dyno tests that were interesting. My guess is that the
performance with the K&N will fall somewhere between the stock filter run
and the no filter run.
5.23.2001
I picked up my Kazuma supercharger yesterday at UPS from Toyotaparts4u.com.
It was nicely packaged and everything appears to be there. I should be
installing it this weekend. I am not taking it to the dealer for the
installation. I will have help though. The TRD strut tower brace has already
been installed. Boy, was that hard. Took all of five minutes. This supercharger
doesn't look like it's going to be too difficult to install. Everything seems
pretty straightforward and the directions are very good. I will be posting pics
of the supercharger and all of it's components as well as some of the steps of
the installation. I really can't wait to have it in. The supercharger came with
some Kazuma decals that I really won't use. I may put them on the wall in the
garage or something, or just save them. I am not going to put decals on my
Solara. I will, however, put the Kazuma license plate frame on it. There is no
need to draw too much attention to it. Now what I want is the 11 pounds of boost
that comes with the smallest pulley, but that would require some serious engine
work first. That is way off in the future and I will be happy with 4 pounds and
the nice increase in power that it brings.
5.16.2001
Hooray. I just got word from Tim from Toyotaparts4u.com. The supercharger
will be on its way soon. I love it. Thanks to everyone that made it happen. Can
you tell I'm happy :-). Anyway. I may post info on the installation of the
SC.
5.15.2001
The group buy for the Kazuma supercharger has expired. Today was the last day
to get in on it. I placed my order but haven't heard anything more about it
other than some of the people in on the group buy did have their cards charged,
but the charge did not appear on my card yet. I hope I gave them the right
number. Pretty sure I did. Anyway. I'll find out soon enough I guess. I was
finally in my first race.
5.11.2001
It's been a couple of weeks. I've been busy at work and there isn't much new
news on the Solara. No one even wants to race. Kind of sucks. I saw a potential
victim errr uhhh competitor the other day. It was a riced out Corolla. I was
thinking that I could mop up the street with it even without the SC. Gotta get
the supercharger. Something else I've noticed. Pardon my French (Yeah, the
French love that one, eh?) but I think my car is a magnet for bird shit. Someone
told me that it's good luck. I have no idea what they're talking about because I
have to keep cleaning it off. Doesn't sound too lucky to me. Maybe it's the
color. I can always get some flames painted on it to make it look less
attractive to the birds.
Oh yeah. I just checked Toyotaparts4u's (would that be right?) site and they
said that there are 17 people committed to the supercharger group buy. That
means that only 3 more people are needed to make it happen and there is only a
few days left. If you want the price then jump on board. There is some info on
this on other sites. Just click on the "Home" link at the top of the
page. You will find the links that you need. Oh and another thing. Forget the
quickie lube places when getting your trans fluid flushed. I had to go back to
get it checked out after three days and it took them forever. It was, without
exception, the most inconvenient car service I have ever had.
4.27.2001
Well, there was some good news today. The Toyotaparts4u.com
Gen 4 Camry/Solara supercharger group buy deadline has been extended to May 15,
2001. That means that there is about 2 weeks left to place your order. The
sooner the better. There are links on the front page of this section that you
can follow for more information on the supercharger.
A few days ago I went to the quickie lube place and had them flush my tranny
fluid. The car has a little over 33,000 miles and it should have been done by
the dealer before I bought the car, but being the moron that I am I never
bothered to check the condition of the trans fluid. I did check the oil and it
was clean. The oil was immediately replaced, however, with Mobil 1. The
trans fluid looks much better now. I chose the quick oil change place because I
thought that it would be quick and simple. Not so. It was probably still easier
than going to the Toyota dealer, but I was there for about 1 1/2 hours. It felt
like forever. I don't think that the guy who was doing the flush had much
experience on the machine and he was ill equipped to perform the task
efficiently. He kept burning his hands. I kind of felt bad for him until they
charged me $20 more than the dealer wanted. He was working with Vice Grips and
no gloves. The oil change place should really consider investing in the proper
tools and clothing for the task. The people that were waiting for oil changes
behind me were getting upset too. They sat there almost as long as I did. It
would have been quicker for them to change their own oil and for what they paid
they could have gone synthetic. It takes about ten minutes for me to change my
oil, but then Toyota made it very easy on this car. The filter is right in
front. The oil does spill all over the engine when I unscrew it. Not sure I can
do anything about that. I am done rambling for now.
4.22.2001
It's Sunday. Just working on the rest of the site. I drove down to Pittsburgh
yesterday to visit my friends Dave and Jessica. We talked about cars half the
time and I think it drove her a little nuts. Sorry Jess. :-) Anyway. The drive
down and back was wet. Well, it was raining. I was completely dry. Funny how
steel keeps the water out. I was very thankful that I wasn't driving the S10
down. The Solara handles so much better it's amazing, but then any fool knows
that a truck won't handle as well as most cars. It was just something that I
noticed and I figured I would waste some time writing about it. The ride down
was comfortable and I managed to get around that crazy Pittsburgh freeway that
was no doubt designed by a couple of drunk engineers over a keg in a local pub
writing on napkins. I guess that's what you get for building a city in and
around a few mountains. Just don't make a wrong turn or you will be sorry. Back
to the car. It does need some improvement in the handling department. I think
that I will try the TRD rear anti sway bar. I've heard that it makes a big
difference. I also want a stiffer suspension but I don't want to lower the car.
The potholes, dips, and bottom scraping into driveways is bad enough with the
stock suspension. I am afraid that by lowering the car I may be setting myself
up for an air bag blast when I bottom out on the way to the mall. I am sure that
I'll find something eventually. Until then I think that the anti sway bar will
be enough. I don't know how the supercharger group buy is going since it seems
as though the Toyota Part 4u site is not working right now. Last I saw the buy
was short by almost half, but it may have just needed some updating. Don't know.
That's all for today.
4.18.2001
I reset the computer for my Solara last week. When I purchased the car the
dealer provided me with a full tank of gas. It knocked and pinged pretty bad
right after I bought it. I started using premium and the problem went away. I
didn't realize that these cars require premium. I guess that they don't
"require" it, but it made the noise go away. Compression is 10.5:1
which is enough to require premium. I am not the type to spend money on premium
gas unless I have to. Don't like it but I accept it. C'est la vie. I haven't
noticed much of a performance boost from resetting the computer, but what I did
notice was that my fuel economy increased dramatically. I was only getting 15
mpg before and now I am getting around 20. I haven't been driving any different.
The only thing I can figure is that resetting the computer while using the
correct fuel for the car helped to put things right again. I may get a low cost
beater this summer just for driving to work so that I won't be punished by the
high gas prices. Can't stand the idea of paying $3 for a gallon of gas and
getting only 20 mpg. I am considering checking out an add on device to improve
fuel economy, but I won't try that on the Solara. I'll try it on the beater. I
also won't say what it is either. If it works I will report it. I sent a few
messages to my friend Dave and he thinks that maybe we could build the device
ourselves. After looking at the device on the web I think that he may be right.
The only problem is that he lives an hour away. I am familiar with most of the
components and can get them for hundreds less than the advertised price. This
should be interesting. In the meantime I hope that a 10" exhaust tip will
be useful in increasing performance and making enough noise to thoroughly piss
off the neighbors. Should give me at least 30HP. If you believe that then I have
a space shuttle for sale down in Florida that I would like to show you. Besides,
my neighbors would probably shoot me for that. Now that I think about it just
about anyone would have the right to shoot me for such an offense. My Solara
sounds much better than my lawn mower and I'd like to keep it that way.
4.16.2001
I have had my Solara for 2 months now. I like it more now than when I first
bought it. I have been reading about some of the newer cars coming out and I
have started second guessing my decision to purchase this car. What's new? Well.
They are coming out with a totally new Camry for 2002 and a new Supra is on its
way as well. I have seen pictures of the new Camry and I'm impressed. I assume
that it will have a 3.0 vvti engine. That should help to increase performance.
Do not quote me on that. I am just guessing. It would also be my guess that they
are going to make a few adjustments to pull some more horsepower out of that
engine. It makes sense since Nissan is announcing that the new Maxima will put
out 260 HP. The Infiniti Q45 is also advertised to unleash something like 340
HP. I know the Infiniti is in a completely different class, but it's worth
noting anyway. I have added my name to the TRD group buying list from Camryman's
Passing Lane for the purchase of the TRD/Kazuma supercharger. It's an
unbelievably good buy, but there needs to be at least 20 orders by April 30 of
this year and it looks as though there are only 11 to date. If you don't believe
me then call your local dealer and ask them how much they want for it and
compare that to the group buy price. I don't know how much more performance I
can expect to see from it but I assume that it will help to keep up with the new
Maxima. Anyway.... Over the weekend I rubbed it down with a clay bar in order to
prepare it for its wax job. That clay bar is a very nice item. It costs about
20$ and it can really get the paint clean. All in all it came out good. That's
it for today.........
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